Career

Zuern spent 19 years and 7 months on death row, with lawyers fighting his death sentence. His execution occurred on the day before the 20th anniversary of the crime for which he was condemned. In May 1984, Zuern, who was awaiting trial for a murder in Cincinnati, was incarcerated at the Community Correctional Institute in Hamilton County, Ohio.

In the latter part of the month, Zuern had a conversation with another inmate about corrections officers" failure to give Zuern his full five minutes of telephone time.

The inmate also had observed Zuern sharpening a straightened portion of a hook from a metal bucket over the course of three days and informed a corrections officer that Zuern either had a knife or a shank. On June 9, 1984, another inmate informed a sheriff"s deputy that he and Zuern had argued the day before and that Zuern said he was going to kill him.

The inmate also said that Zuern had a homemade knife which he had sharpened on his cell floor. That evening, officers proceeded to search Zuern"s cell, among others

Before the officers arrived at Zuern"s cell, Zuern received word from another inmate that the officers were coming to search his cell.

At approximately 10:20 Prime Minister, Officers Joe Burton and Phillip Pence arrived to perform the search and found Zuern lying naked in his bunk. Officer Pence ordered Zuern to get to his feet. He then stood at the door of the cell.

Pence unlocked the cell and told Zuern to come out and put his hands against the wall.

Zuern lunged at Pence and fatally stabbed him in the chest with the metal shank. The weapon was a long dagger-like piece of metal, approximately seven inches lougitude

One end was sharpened to a point, and the other end was curved into a loop.